DPA
Phnom Penh - An elephant that terrorized residents of a village in southern Cambodia has been transported to his new home at a zoo, local media reported.
The bull elephant named Sambo killed his owner and escaped from captivity this month, trampling crops and harassing residents who retaliated with sticks, knives and fireworks. Officials from the Cambodian Forestry Administration eventually tranquilized him and transported him Saturday to Phnom Tamao Zoo outside Phnom Penh, the Phnom Penh Post newspaper reported.
Jack Highwood, the head of a wildlife conservation group who assisted in Sambo's capture, said the pachyderm's transportation was an ordeal as it became a local spectacle.
'We had to deal with people who wanted to get close [to] him, ride him, catch him and drive him - and especially deal with drunken people who wanted to take him home with them,' Highwood told the Post.
The elephant, which weighed in at roughly 5 tons when captured, has reportedly lost more than 500 kilograms since being put on a starvation diet to ease his aggression. Conservation groups said the beast has likely been in a little-understood hormonal state called musth, which causes intense aggression in bull elephants.
Despite the destruction wrought by Sambo, some residents in Mon village of Kampong Speu province were sad to see him go.
'What are we going to look at now that the elephant is gone?' one villager reportedly asked Highwood. 'Rice? Cows?'
2 comments:
i hope phnom tamao zoo will become a world famous zoo one day! they should spread the words to all the other zoo around the world to come visit and exchange training program, etc with phnom tamao zoo. phnom tamao zoo has an interesting history that it was born out of a sanctuary for rescued animals and othe wildlife rehabilitation center, etc... it a good place to take children there to study about cambodia's many wildlife and and good place for tourist to get a glance of cambodia's wildlife as well. sambo, the killer elephant will certainly make history and lucky to be relocated to phnom tamao zoo. god bless sambo the rogue elephant.
to get something to be famous or well-known all over the world, it's a matter o promoting it and doing a good job at that.
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